question_answer 1)

Why calorie-based norm is not adequate to identify the poor?

Answer:

The government uses Monthly Per Capita Expenditure (MPCE) as proxy for income of households to identify the poor. Poverty line is estimated by the monetary value (per capita expenditure) of the minimum calorie intake that was estimated at 2400 calories for a rural person and 2100 for a person in the urban area. But this calorie-based norm is not adequate to identify the poor duo lo following reasons (i) This mechanism groups all the poor together and does not differentiate between the very poor and the other poor which makes it' difficult to identify who amongst them needs help the most. (ii) Economists question, the basis of taking expenditure on food and a few select items as proxy for income. (iii) This norm does not take into account the other factors associated with poverty such as accessibility to basic education, health care, drinking water and sanitation. (iv) This norm does not take social factors such as illiteracy, lack of access to resources, discrimination or lack of civil and political freedoms into consideration.